Grand tragic opera in five acts
Libretto by the composer after Rienzi, or The Last of the Tribunes (1835) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, translated by Georg Nikolaus Bärmann (1836)
World premiere October 20th 1842, Hoftheater, Dresden

Sung in German with German surtitles
Co-production with the Alte Oper

About the work

Rome, mid-C14, Cola di Rienzi, tribune and man of the people, wants to re-structure the Roman Empire and battles against the depraved noble familes. The present day was intended, the years before the March revolution. Wagner’s early five act opera was a great success because it fulfilled all expectations of grand, historical opera and took compositional and dramaturgical architecture to new levels. Its narrative style helped too: IvanhoeNotre-Dame de Paris and Bulwer-Lytton’s Rienzi, or The Last of the Tribunes were very popular at the time - Rossini’s Tell, Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots and Halévy’s Jüdin led the way in this field. Wagner exploited these models but avoided cheap elements of sensationalism. Eduard Hanslick wrote about the splendid, realistic representation of Rome in the Middle Ages: »Dances, marches, pageants, church pomp and street fighting, conflagrations, chaos - the listener is nearly killed by the sight and sound of such historical magnificence.« The story is melodramatic. Paolo Orsini attempts to abduct Rienzi’s sister Irene. Adriano appears to defend her – the beginning of a dangerous story in which it turns out that that nobody can really be trusted …